Monday, June 13, 2011

Back in April Germany was blessed with sudden bursts of warmth and sunshine and, naturally, I immediately started to long for ice cream in all variations and flavours. Most of the vegan ice cream flavours that can be found at the shops here in Germany are very simple: chocolate, vanilla and various fruit-sorbets. I love chocolate ice cream and will pick it over vanilla eeevery time, but sometimes it's just nice to branch out a little and to try something unusual or new. I wanted to make my own ice cream as soon as possible, but I also wanted to keep the process relatively simple so I choose coconut milk as my base and matcha powder for an intense flavour. Mhmmm... Shall we get started? :)

1) Put all ingredients into a blender and blend on high for about a minute (the sugar needs to be dissolved completely).
2) Pour the mixture into a plastic container, then close the lid and move the container to the freezer. Use a container that is not too small as you will have to stir the mixture later on.
3) Use a strong fork to stir the mixture every hour or so until it's ready for serving.[You can skip step 2-3 and use an ice cream maker instead, if you own one... Lucky you!^^]

Notes:
• Lecithin works as an emulsifier and stabilizer and thus it helps to freeze the ice cream mixture evenly. I used sunflower lecithin that I bought from eBay, but I think soy derived lecithin should work equally well and it is more easily accessible.
• Matcha can be found in most well stocked asian grocery shops.
• While this ice cream is easily made without an ice cream maker, it will unfortunately harden quite a bit the longer it sits in the freezer. An easy solution would be to use ice lolly/popsicle moulds, this way you don't have to worry about the scooping issue, but you still get to enjoy a creamy iced treat. Another possibility is to prepare the ice cream in the morning so that it'll be ready for immediate consumption at dinner time.